Author: Allison Braun

Hi! Thanks for stopping by. I have recently graduated Central Washington University with a bachelors in Public Relations. I moved to Los Angeles which I considered the city of dreams--and it very much is. As I look around on my way to work, I see inspiration everywhere. I want to use that inspiration to make my life and career goals a reality.
In this crazy world today, I like to track my thoughts and opinions through this blog. Often times my blog posts will seem random; other times, my blog posts will seem very timely.
Enjoy!

This week I unplugged from the real world and headed out to an island off the coast of Washington state and near Canada where the phone service is sketchier than the Trump family. Look, I’m not one to get politically involved; however, this family seems like they need a reality show, not a shot at running our country.

Anyway, I came across a blog post written by Simon Dumenco with a title that certainly caught my eye thanks to its humor; “NYT to Trump Jr.: We’re Digging This Hole for You. Trump Jr.: Wow, Thanks! Can I Help Dig?”

This blog post got me all caught up with the craziness that is our first family. It seems, in my opinion, Republicans tend to just simply ignore the bad news. But this seems to be hard to ignore, even for Fox News. Donald Trump Jr. (yeah, not our president, but his son) met with Russian intelligence back in 2016 in hopes to get dirt on Hillary Clinton to further advance his father in the election.

Donald Trump Jr. claims that most of this is “fake news”…

Thanks to Dumenco, I was able to learn fact from fiction.

Ignore, ignore, ignore… That is, until The New York Times gained access to emails PROVING that Donald Trump Jr. did in fact meet with Russian intelligence and this is not “fake news”. The New York Times then tweeted stating they will release the emails; however, Donald Trump Jr. beat them to it. Sigh. According to Trump Jr., one minute he is completely transparent and admits to meeting with Russian intelligence (when no one even asked), then he claims it’s all lies, only to later release proof that it is real.

Now we have Republicans, Congressmen, and most of the country running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Do we condemn or applaud him? Are we really supposed to believe the president had nothing to do with this?

From what I understand, Trump has said it was a great opportunity for his son and of course he would say that. This was a great opportunity for the Trumps to get an upper hand.

But after all at G-20 Summit Putin did say he had no involvement in the American elections, so that must be true…

We have all heard about the drama that has followed The American Health Care Act but let’s get some things clear:

The new health care bill would reduce deficits by $119 billion compared to Obamacare

The new health care bill will leave 23 million Americans uninsured

Eliminates most of ObamaCare’s taxes on those with higher incomes, employers, and industry

In a time where most news is biased, most politicians are phony, and most colleagues are clueless, it is important to get the straight forward facts.

For clarification; Obamacare and the ACA (Affordable Care Act) are the same. The American Health Care Act, Trumpcare, and Ryancare are the same.

While The American Health Care Act also does many controversial things, including defunding Planned Parenthood and taking large amounts of cost assistance away from Seniors who haven’t reached Medicare age, I would like to just focus on that magic number–23 million.

There are 321.4 million people in America.

After Obamacare was passed in 2010, the national rate of uninsured people fell from 13.3 percent to 10.4 percent with 8.8 million people gaining health insurance.

With Obamacare, you are required to have health insurance or you will be fined.

With The American Health Care Act, 23 million Americans will be uninsured.

This will surpass the 13.3 percent of uninsured Americans back in 2010 by about one percent.

Look, these are just cold hard facts and numbers written in plain English.

As of right now, through Obamacare, I am able to be on my parent’s insurance plan until I am 26 years old. This allows me six years to get stabilized and give me a head start on my student loans. Removing the right of extended health care within the family until 26 would mean individuals who are 19 or out of school cannot be covered under their parents’ or guardians’ health plan until age 26.

Luckily, Trump seems to favor this law. So far, we have not heard word of how it will be changed. “I very much like this health right,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal.

I cannot stress the importance of millennials staying in the know and learning the facts. This is all happening in the immediate future. We are the future.

Saying the Ellensburg Downtown Association is a huge deal is an understatement. Three powerful ladies, Carolyn Honeycutt, Moly Jones, and Faith Mehal, handle 240 different local businesses.

So what does it mean to work with 240 different local business? Well, these three ladies are a non-profit and they work to revitalize and preserve the quaint downtown Ellensburg. Their main focuses is design, organization, economic reconstructing, and promotion.

Right now, EDA is promoting a Pint Night, a night where non-profit organizations can raise money for a specific cause. Pint Night is of course held at none other that The Iron Horse Brewery. During Pint Night, Iron Horse Brewery will donate $0.50 for every pint sold and it is also encouraged to have other revenue generating activities.

Gives you an excuse to go get a pint of Irish Death!

Do you like to bike? EDA is also currently promoting a Like to Bike festival that will be held this Saturday, May 20. The festival includes a vintage bike show, a bike part swap meet, a bike “rodeo”, and an opportunity to fix a flat!

This is such a small portion of what The Ellensburg Downtown Association ladies do. The staff is small, so they rely on community volunteers, and us–Central Communication Agency!

For Central Communication Agency, we try and take a load off of our favorite ladies. This quarter we have helped them promote events at our Student Union and Recreation Center, build a website for a local business that previously lacked one, and create press releases.

Throughout the years, EDA has won many excellence awards and it truly shows through their work. Historic downtown Ellensburg is truly my favorite part of our little town, and it is nice that there is a non-profit organization that cherishes downtown as well.

$37,000 and counting… that’s what i’m facing in debt after I finish my UNDERGRAD. A mixture of government loans and private loan, yeah, it feels great.

When I was 18, I knew everything, and I had to go out of state for college; even though my dad told me I could graduate in my home state virtually debt free.

Student debt almost seems inevitable now-a-days, which is sad being that in order to make a stable life for yourself, you need a bachelor’s degree. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about my student debt, a big flashing $37,000 running through my head.

As if Nicki Minaj twerking didn’t give me enough life, now, she has helped a select number of students pay off their college debt and in the future, is planning to create a charity foundation to further help students pay off their student loans.

On twitter last week, Minaj said if you can show her straight A’s that she would be able to verify with the school, she will pay off your student loans.

For some, this meant that they were finally able to go back to school after not being able to pay a certain balance for the school.

The foundation that Minaj is building will focus on girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Minaj is not the only one who has her focus on school. Chance the Rapper, last month, donated $1 million to Chicago’s public schools and created an arts fund to help schools hard hit by budget cuts.

This all really stands out to me because it is so relevant to me and those my age. It’s nice to see these people who are worth multi-million dollars, put their money to good use. Where they could just piss away thousands of dollars on new cars, they use the money to make a genuine difference in someone else’s life.

Coach has been the classic and luxury handbag company since 1941, and on Monday, they acquired their New York rival, Kate Spade.
They really did it, they really made another iconic move… and i can nearly feel Michael Kors squirming.

Coach bought out Kate Spade for $2.4 billion which came as a surprise to me. I would have figured Kate Spade was worth much more. It seems like I am seeing everyone and their mothers pulling out a Kate Spade wallet from their Kate Spade purse.

So what does this mean? Well, Coach has died out for most millennials; whereas, Kate Spade has become the newest “must have”… maybe because of the lower prices or maybe because of the trendier designs.

These two very contrasting brands just came together to create a multi-brand fashion house. Coach has always help a very classic brand. Having a coach bag on your shoulder meant you were an “it girl” back in the 70’s and 80’s. Now, still very classic, but seen as borderline boring.

On the contrary, Kate Spade a very young rival, has their own flavour that has attracted the eye of millennials. From funky shaped bags and patterns to statement pieces, Kate Spade is very known on the streets.

Coach is making an aggressive push to polish their brand. After awhile, everyone needs a facelift. Kate Sade is simply giving Coach extra years to their face. In addition, Coach hired Joshua Schulman, who had been president of Neiman Marcus’s Bergdorf Goodman division and the former CEO of Jimmy Choo, further increasing their multi brand fashion house

The handbag industry is a very crowded market but I believe Coach just did exactly what they needed to truly compete; and people are noticing. Coach’s stock it up 8% this morning from last night’s close.

I’m so anxious and curious to see what is to come for Coach. Personally, Coach has always been an old lady bag in my eyes and Kate Spade has always been a bit bold and loud for my taste.

A happy compromise would be ideal for this millennial.

So maybe this is the best of both worlds. I could get a Kate Spade purse design, with a Coach logo… and hopefully a Kate Spade price…

Never in my life have I been more committed to something like how I am committed to Survivor. I have seen all 34 seasons; I have favorite players, favorite challenges, and favorite episodes. I have even dreamed of competing on Survivor one day. However, through all of this, last Wednesday really caught me off guard.

Per usual, at the end of every episode, one tribe (team) is sent to tribal council where one player on the team is voted off by their tribe. Occasionally, tribal council gets heated–even more so this season because every contestent has played the game before and has been considered a “game changer”. So, a lot of loud personalities bouncing around.

This Wednesday was different though, more shocking than ever. In order to try and advance in the game, Jeff Varner outted Zeke Smith on national TV as transgender by saying to the tribe, “Zeke is deceiving you because what Zeke is not telling you is that Zeke is transgender”.

Woah.

Zeke Smith has played two seasons and has been able to keep his sexuality private. Which is exactly what it should be: private. The fact that Zeke Smith is transgender and chose to keep it private has no indication of how Zeke plays his game.

Though stunned, Zeke handled it very well. It did not go over well with the tribe, and the unanimously voted out Varner, Zeke handled himself with poise. He simply didn’t want to be known as the transgender survivor player.

Jeff Varner took a lot away from Zeke Smith that day. Most likely without realizing, Varner not only outted Zeke to the tribe but also the millions of viewers.

Now, that was filmed months ago. Today, after the episode aired, Zeke has moved forward and forgives Varner.

Hi, my name is Allison, I like burgers, long walks on the beach, and murder.
Wait, what!?

Yes, that’s right, I find the topic of murder to be exciting… in the most respectful way. I never knew how interested I was in this topic until I started listening to podcasts–Serial and My favorite murder to be exact.

I always found myself wanting to know every detail of that murder I saw on the news that night but I was just curious–passionately curious.

I started listening to Serial on my grueling 18 hour drive back to Washington from Southern California. This podcast, hosted by Sarah Koeing, discusses in depth a murder that occurs back in 1999. Koeing reopens the line of conversation for the murder of Hae Min Lee, a high school senior, by sorting through thousands of court documents, talking to everyone she could find that was in the friend group or involved in the disappearance and murder of Min Lee. Koeing discovered that the trial for this murder covered up a far more complex story which ended up convicting a possibly innocent ex-boyfriend of the victim, Adnan Syed.
Serial is all about answers, but in the end leaves it up to the listener to determine the innocence or guilt of Adnan Syed. However, Serial led to the order of a new trial for Syed in 2016.
After finishing Serial, I found myself listening to My Favorite Murder, and yes, it is exactly how it sounds. This podcast has two hosts, Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, who bounce off each other in a discussion of their favorite murders weekly. Every week they have a category, such as murder with a strange object. Then they proceed to share the sometimes graphic stories.
I think my curiosity stems from the unknown.
I always wonder when someone thinks or acts a certain way that seems unimaginable to me, why would someone act that way? In My Favorite Murder, the hosts always try to determine a motive.
Some like reality shows about housewives, I like podcasts about murder.